Executive Summary: More Canadians planning to hold off on buying a home, study shows

Ottawa’s new mortgage rules seem to be doing the trick on dampening Canadians’ enthusiasm for dipping into the housing market. Fewer Canadians are planning to purchase a home in the next two years, according to a study released Tuesday. The annual poll by Royal Bank found that 15% of those surveyed say they’re likely to buy in the next two years, a drop from 27% from the previous year. Among those with buying intentions, 40% say they’ll be signing a mortgage for the first time.

It’s official: Canada’s banking watchdog says Canada’s top six banks are too big to fail. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions identified Canada’s six largest banks as systemically important to the country Tuesday and said they will subject to enhanced disclosure and a 1% risk weighted capital surcharge by Jan. 1, 2016. The six banks are the Bank of Montreal, the Bank of Nova Scotia, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce , National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Banks in Cyprus will remain closed until Thursday, and even then subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits, after a European Union bailout that the country’s president assured his people was in their best interests. European shares and the euro inched higher on Tuesday, although gains were limited by fears that Cyprus’s raid on bank deposits could become the template for future eurozone bailouts.

Suncor Energy Inc is expected to shelve plans for a multibillion-dollar oil sands processing plantin northern Alberta when it announces the fate of the facility in the coming days, blaming a forecast for weakening returns. Suncor said in February that the “economic outlook for the Voyageur upgrader project is challenged” and it cut any expenditures on it to a minimum pending a decision on going ahead.

Not in my backyard

A coalition of Ontario municipalities is raising concerns about Enbridge Inc.’s plans to reverse the flow of its 1970s-era Line 9 pipeline between Sarnia and Montreal, fearing a repeat of the 2010 rupture on the company’s Lakehead system near Marshall, Michigan. Concerns that an active pipeline literally running through the north end of the city of Toronto has prompted calls from Toronto City Council for more information from Enbridge, as well as additional public sessions to provide more detail to the public about the plans and any environmental impact they may cause. The underground line runs the width of the city, crossing all of Toronto’s rivers, and is upstream from Toronto water treatment plants. As Tk writes, the point of the project is to get western Canadian oil to Quebec refineries, weaning their dependence on foreign oil, which is priced roughly $25 a barrel higher.

More sour grapes for BlackBerry

Well that didn’t take long. Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski downgraded BlackBerry’s stock on Monday just days after the U.S. release of the company’s new Z-10 smartphone. Jankowski noted in a research report that initial sales at AT&T Inc. and Best Buy Co. stores were “tepid,” adding that her retail checks at over 20 store locations since March 22 revealed “a surprising lack of marketing support and poor positioning of the product.” Jankowski cut her rating on the stock to a neutral. Meanwhile, Jefferies released its own report on BlackBerry Monday, noting that its store checks showed demand for the Z10 in the U.S. was slightly better than its admittedly modest expectations. To be sure, it’s BlackBerry’s next device – one with a physical keyboard – that could prove make or break.

Multiple suitors for Dell

Michael Dell may have to come up with more dough to keep his own company. Dell Inc. on Monday said it received two alternative takeover proposals— one from activist investor Carl Icahn and the other from a private-equity fund managed by Blackstone Group LP—that a special board committee said may result in bids superior to the one offered last month by founder Michael Dell. Dell, whose offer of US$13.65 a share values the struggling computer maker at US$24.4 billion, considers Blackstone’s bid for his company “management friendly,” a person familiar with Dell’s position told the Wall Street Journal. Dell, 48, last month teamed with private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners to take the iconic computer products maker private. The deal has drawn criticism from some shareholders as undervaluing the company.

A Family Affair

Rengan Rajaratnam, the younger brother of imprisoned hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, pleaded not guilty on Mondayto insider trading charges. Prosecutors on Thursday accused Rengan Rajaratnam, 42, of conspiring with his brother to trade on non-public information concerning Clearwire Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc in 2008. Rengan Rajaratnam, whose full first name is Rajarengan, was a portfolio manager at the hedge fund Galleon Group, and the trades for which he was charged resulted in nearly $1.2 million of illegal profit, according to prosecutors. Raj Rajaratnam, 55, received an 11-year prison sentence in October 2011 after a jury convicted the former billionaire the previous May.

Researchers around the world are unlocking mysteries of the brain and causes of mental disorders in a “quiet neuroscience revolution”.

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